1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to ambulatory fluid delivery systems. More specifically, the present invention relates to a carrying case for a fluid delivery system mounted in a support device for supporting and protecting elements thereof, e.g. pump, fluid container, tubing, drip chamber, etc.
2. Description of the Prior Art
It is common for patient's having certain medical problems to require periodic premeasured infusions of fluid, such as medicaments or nutrients, into their bodies. Examples of such patients are those who may require nutrients to be delivered directly into their digestive tract periodically over long periods of time, or cancer patients who require exacting amounts of medication to be delivered intravenously at precise periods of time.
In the past, such patients required hospitalization in order to allow medical personnel to perform the infusions at the proper time and in the proper amounts. Such procedures were extremely time consuming to the patient and also the hospital personnel, and had the potential of human error in calculation of infusion dosages and injection time intervals.
An improvement on the above procedure has been to employ a programmable pump to insure that the patient automatically receives the proper infusion dosage at the proper time period, thus relieving medical personnel from constant monitoring of the patient and from worrying about infusion amounts and time tables. Although the programmable pump greatly relieves medical personnel of time consuming care to the patient, the patient nevertheless remains bound to the hospital bed during prolonged infusion periods.
A further improvement has been to develop an infusion system which can not only automatically infuse preset volumes of fluid into the patient on a predetermined time table, but also allow the patient to be ambulatory. U.S. Pat. No. 4,657,486 to Stempfle et al. U.S. Pat. No. 4,416,595 to Cromie, and U.S. Pat. No. 4,397,639 to Eschweiler et al. are exemplary of portable infusion systems of this type. Each discloses a portable infusion device which is automatically operable at selected time intervals to inject accurate amounts of fluid medication into a patient's body, and is also sufficiently compact and portable to allow the patient to be ambulatory while being attached to the infusion system.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,688,595 to Srebnik et al. is also exemplary of fluid delivery systems of this type. Srebnik discloses a delivery system which includes an integrally molded base to which elements of the delivery system, i.e., the pump, the fluid container, etc. can be attached. The base allows the entire fluid delivery system to be transportable as a unit and makes it possible for the patient to move about without the inconvenience of transporting a more cumbersome apparatus, such as a prior art type infusion system affixed to a pole mounted on wheels.
Although there has been improvement in portable fluid delivery systems in the past, there nevertheless remain several inadequacies. First, fluid infusion systems generally include a programmable pump and a fluid delivery set comprising a fluid container, tubing, pinch clamp, drip chamber, etc., all connected as an integral unit. The container of the fluid delivery set may be a flexible bag, a rigid glass or plastic bottle or a burette.
Standard fluid delivery sets (i.e. sets intended for non-ambulatory use) include rather long tubular extensions to allow the fluid container to be placed on an infusion pole while the distal end of the tube is attached to a pump located remotely from the container adjacent a bed ridden or non-ambulatory patient. These sets are generally ill suited for placement in a portable device such as that described by the above-mentioned prior art devices. This is because these prior art portable systems enclosed in carrying cases generally require significantly shorter tubing extension to operate properly. The excess tubing of a standard infusion set is cumbersome and inhibitive of proper operation of the prior art systems, and often cannot be used without the risk of becoming occluded or pinched off during ambulatory use. In fact, systems such as that shown by Stempfle et al., require a unique "non-standard" tubing design in order to allow the fluid delivery set to be properly attached to the pump. Modifications to the standard fluid delivery set have been found to be unsatisfactory in that they require the hospital or other facility to stock the "non-standard" fluid delivery sets for use in the ambulatory type systems, along with standard sets for all other uses. This becomes necessary since the "non-standard" ambulatory sets are generally unsuitable for use on "standard" non-ambulatory systems.